After a week of surprise results at the Northern Ireland Open, it was business as usual for the majority of the top seeds in the opening round of the UK Championship, although Ding Junhui and Ali Carter were shocked by veterans of the tour.
A moment to remember for Fernandez after a lengthy spell in the wilderness
Playing in his fifth game of the season after missing the entirety of the last campaign due to a suspension for match-fixing, 41-year old Leo Fernandez produced an epic comeback against number two seed, Ding Junhui. Trailing 5-1, the unseeded Irishman won five consecutive frames to earn his first victory since February 2016.
Meanwhile, Jimmy White rolled back the years as he made up for being ranked 104 places below number 11 seed Ali Carter. The Whirlwind lived up to his name as he blew away Carter 6-2.
Those two scorelines were easily the standout results in an opening round bereft of unexpected outcomes. Lu Haotian continued his excellent form from last week with a 6-1 win over Anthony Hamilton seeded 79 places above him.
Aditya Metha held his nerve to win on the final black against Sam Baird, whilst Xu Si also won a final frame decider against Mark Davis. Akani Songsermsawad made up 45 places on Fergal O'Brien before Peter Lines stunned Zhou Yuelong who is seeded 75 places above him.
Majority of favourites comfortably progress
Defending champion Mark Selby eased through 6-4 against Basem Eltahhan but a number of his rivals impressed in their opening matches.
Neil Robertson produced three consecutive centuries to cruise past Rod Lawler, whilst Judd Trump and Joe Perry formulated the joint highest break with a 137 apiece as they won their openers 6-0 and 6-1 respectively.
Ryan Day also won 6-0 as he fell four balls short of registering a maximum break. Dominic Dale was another who formulated a whitewash, conceding just 17 points to Adam Duffy in the process.
Northern Ireland Open champion Mark Williams, Andrew Higginson, Mark King and Xiao Guodong also did not drop a frame whilst top ten players Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Allen, Shaun Murphy, John Higgins, Marco Fu and Barry Hawkins had no concerns against their respective opponents.